'BJP, SP share tacit understanding'

Rebel Samajwadi Party leader Beni Prasad Verma, once a close confidant of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Monday said that he had advised the latter to support Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the post of prime minister after the fall of Vajpayee-led government in 1999, but a 'very influential party leader' did not let it happen.

"I had asked Yadav to support Sonia (for the post of prime minister) and told him that Bharatiya Janata Party will be wiped out from north India. However, a very influential party leader, who was opposed to it, prevailed over him," Verma, who recently floated Samajwadi Kranti Dal after parting ways with Yadav, told media persons in Lucknow.

Alleging that there was a 'tacit understanding' between the BJP and SP, he claimed the present SP-led government in Uttar Pradesh was the result of a 'conspiracy by BJP and SP.'

"To retain a BJP speaker in the Vidhan Sabha was part of the strategy to recognise the defection and split in the Bahujan Samaj Party," he claimed.

Unlike Mayawati, Yadav tries to maintain clandestine relations with the BJP, Verma, a founder member of the SP, said.

Verma also alleged that a weak candidate had been fielded by the SP against senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon in the state capital to ensure Tandon's victory.